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The United States is asking India with lots of questions on key policy issues in the telecom sector as thecountry gears up to auction 3G mobile phone spectrum, which will allow services such as high-speed internet and video-conferencing etc...Among the queries raised by the US TelecommunicationsSub-committee is whether India will change rules to allow foreign companies to bid for 3Gspectrum as 100% foreign entities. The panel also wants to know how much time foreign playerswill get to find an Indian partner if their bids are successful.

India will auction 3G spectrum in January. US telecom firms such as AT&T and Verizon, whichhave been trying to enter India for the past two years, are not present in the world’ssecond-largest market for wireless services with more than 300 million subscribers. TheAmerican contention is that the current 3G policy does not favour the entry of new foreignplayers.Existing regulations don’t allow foreign telecom companies to hold over 74% in theirIndian ventures. So, a 100% foreign-owned entity entering the Indian telecom market mustfind an Indian partner to hold a 26% stake in the joint venture.

Iran's oil minister said he considered the "real price" for a barrel of crude should be more than $100 and a senior Iranian official said OPEC needed to cut oversupply from the market, Iranian media reported on Saturday.Saudi Arabia has said $75 a barrel was a fair price, comments echoed by an Iranian official this month. Other officials in the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries have said OPEC states needed $70 to $80 a barrel.International oil prices , meanwhile, are now more than $100 below their July peak, trading around $46 on Friday.GOLDMAN Sachs Group Inc. expects US crude oil futures to fall to $30 a barrel in the first quarter as the global recession cuts demand.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries(OPEC) would need to reduce output by an extra two million barrels a day in 2009, combined with a 600,000 barrel-a-day cut by non-Opec producers, to “rebalance” the oil market, Goldman said in a note dated Thursday.

“Oil demand growth in the United States and the OECD countries has fallen to recessionary levels in 2008,” the report says.

India's industrial output fell for the first time in many years by 0.4% last october 08. For the month of october 2007, output had grown by 12.2%.

A year ago; the Index for Industrial Production numbers for the seven-month period ended October, was 4.1% against 9.9%.This time manufacturing industries growth has been in a critical situation.

and also last year, manufacturing sector, which accounts for 80% of the index, declined 1.2% from 13.8%.

The government sought to rescue the manufacturers earlier this month, by announcing an across-the-board 4% cut in excise duty.

During the month, there was a growth by 4.4% in the electricity sector, battering 4.2% output of the year-ago period, while mining sector grew by a slower 2.8% against 5.1% in the previous year's comparable period.

The fall in intermediate and consumer goods was mainly responsible for the overall decline.

Renault India is set to sign an MoU with Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M) for distribution of all its vehicle models in the country, said Sylvain Bilaine, managing director, Renault India. This agreement will include all cars that Renault will import into the country as well as the ones that the company will roll out from its Chennai plant in the first half of 2010.

The MoU comes despite M&M having walked out of the tripartite agreement with Renault and Nissan. "We will sign the MoU with M&M very soon,"said Bilaine.

India’s two largest private airlines,Kingfisher and Jet Airways, are likely to reduce fares by up to Rs 1,000 on domestic routes by Dec 2008.

Last week, oil marketing companies had announced a 17% cut in aviation turbine fuel (ATF) prices, while the government reduced customs duty on jet fuel by 5%.Including this the aviation ministry and the government has given them series of benifits to the Airlines industry.

Following this, Air Fuel prices in the metros have come down between Rs 44,965 and Rs 53,663 per kilolitre, a 20% drop from last month. The airlines also received an extension to pay off their fuel dues worth Rs 2,000 crore. However, the customers are yet to get any relief.

After five-week downward trend in inflation, the inflation rate rose slightly to 10.72% for the week ended 25 October. It stood at 10.68% during the previous week.The wholesale price index (WPI) for all commodities showed an increase of 0.1%, with the index for primary articles rose by 0.4%, according to a government statement released here today. The index for food articles rose 0.4% due to the higher prices of rice (3%), and urad and tea (2%).The index for non-food articles rose 0.8% due to higher prices of rubber (up 7%) and raw cotton (3%). The index for fuel, power, light and lubricants remained unchanged at the previous week’s level of 369, while that for manufactured products declined marginally by 0.1% to 205.3 from 205.4 for the previous week.

Gufic Biosciences Ltd(GBL) Board Of Directors (BOD) meeting will be held on Nov 14,2008.In that meeting they are going to discuss about the following things1.Approve the annual accounts of the Company for the year ending on March 31, 2008.2.To consider and if thought fit to declare dividend.

Market demand for Medium and Heavy duty vehicles came down drastically because of inadequate market funding and high interest rates.so Ashok Leyland has planned to moderate their production plan for next two months.Power shortage in most part of the country is also one of the reason.Ashok Layland's manufacturing units will work only 3 days a week till Dec 2008.

After Reserve Bank of India(RBI) move in Repo Rate All Public sector banks and private banks started reducing their lending rates.Now State Bank of Mysore(SBM) has revised the Bench-Mark Prime Lending Rate (BPLR) down by 75 basis points with effect from November 10, 2008.

Script Code:502241 Company name:IAG Company Ltd IAG Company Ltd Board Of Directors (BOD) meeting will be held on Nov 12,2008.In that meeting they are going to discuss about the following things1.For increasing the Authorized Share Capital of the Company.2.To approve Preferential Allotment.

United Phosphorus Ltd promoter group Companies M/s. Uniphos Enterprises Ltd (Transferor) has entered into an agreement on November 03, 2008 with another promoter group Company M/s. Nerka Chemicals Pvt. Ltd (Transferee) for interse transfer of 28,50,000 equity shares of the Company through off market bulk deal amongst promoter group as part of a strategic planning within the group.

After a huge loss in indian stock market it took a break to celebrate Diwali on Tuesday(oct28). The stock market stepped into the new year on a positive note, with the Sensex trading its highest Muhurat-day gain of 499 points.Tuesday’s 499-point spurt, in fact, was the biggest Muhurat day gain recorded by the Sensex. The index had fallen 151 points at the beginning of Samvat 2064 on November 9, 2007. While brokerage houses have started buying, some support came from domestic institutional investors,FII's not participated actively according to market sources.

Firm Asian markets and Dow futures may have boosted the Indian indices, but the undertone remained extremely cautious on the day that marked the beginning of the trading year for the Gujarati community, Samvat 2065.Indian stock market is depends on how the US market behaves over the next few days. On Tuesday, the Dow opened in the green. Elsewhere in Asia, key markets rebounded smartly, with the Hong Kong’s Hang Seng climbing 15%, because of the two-day US Fed meeting starting Tuesday. The US banking regulator is expected to cut rates.

Among the Muhurat day favourites were beaten down realty and metal stocks. The BSE Realty index shot up nearly 10%, followed by metal, power and capital goods indices, which jumped 7% each on Tuesday.M & M led the pack of biggest Sensex gainers, with a 13% spurt, followed by Jaiprakash Associates (up 11.5%), Hindalco (up 11.2%) and Tata Motors (up 10.8%). Buoyed by smart gains in global markets, the Sensex opened on a bullish note with a gap of 450 points and rose to an intra-day high of 9,057, before ending at 9,008, with a gain of 499 points, or 5.9%.

The Securities and Exchange Board of India, or Sebi, has hiked the creeping acquisition limit to 75% from 55% shareholding.Promoters could earlier not do creeping acquisition beyond 55%. Now, they can buy up to 5% every year till the 75% limit is hit. The market regulator said creeping acquisition beyond 55% will only be through open market normal segment and not bulk deals. There will be an automatic exemption up to 5% increase in shareholding of promoters after the company buy back.

Suzlon Energy Ltd, India’s biggest wind-turbine maker, suspended its plan to raise money by selling shares to existing shareholders after a slump in stock markets across the world. The Indian benchmark share index has fallen 58% this year.In view of the current capital market environment, it has been decided to suspend the rights issue, Suzlon said in a release to the Bombay Stock Exchange(BSE) on Monday.Suzlon shares turned positive after the announcement, before ending 0.6% lower at Rs46.95 in a Mumbai market that fell 2.2%.Suzlon had struck a deal in September to buy Martifer’s 22.48% stake in Repower for nearly $400 million, which would have taken its holding to 90% by December.Suzlon shares have dropped 88% this year.The move to drop the rights issue won’t hamper the plans of the company, Suzlon said."Since the rights issue was planned to further accelerate the original plans of the company, the proposed suspension shall not impact the original plans," the company said.

The cost of getting telecom spectrum from the defence forces has risen upto 10 times significantly from the estimates worked out more than two years ago.The Department Of Telecommunications (DoT) must foot a bill of around Rs14,000 cr to set up an alternate optic fibre communications network for the defence forces, up from the initial estimate of Rs1,200 cr that was subsequently revised to Rs 5,000 crore.

Spectrum is a scarce natural resource essential for providing quality mobile telephony service.The group of ministers (GoM), which was constituted in 2007 for vacation of defence spectrum, is expected to meet this week to find a solution to the long-pending issue. DoT is expecting 30 MHz of 3G spectrum and 20 MHz of 2G spectrum from the defence.The increase in cost for getting the unused spectrum vacated from the defence forces may act as a major roadblock for the entire telecom sector, and introduction of 3G (third generation) services in particular. According to a government announcement, the auction process for starting 3G telecom services in India is likely to begin by the end of this year 2008.

the Sensex is hovering around 8250 after having recovered partially from the day’s low of 7,697 points. During january 2008 sensex is in a range of 20,000. But now indian stock market collapsed,not only indian stock markets,Global markets were also dipped into a new low. Don't be panic in this situation, stop trading and start investing this is what policy every big investors are following. so start buying the good stock at this lower level and hold it for 6 months to 1 year. you may have purchased some stocks at high rates, now you can buy the same stock more quantity to averagr the stock. so that you can come out of that stock very quickly.

The market fall is on account of FII selling. It is not connected with the health of our economy. Yes, the Western economies are in trouble and investors there are in a state of panic. Their governments and central banks are taking strong measures to address the situation.

LG Electronics India has decided to hike prices of its products in almost all categories from Nov1 to offset the sharp depreciation of rupee against the dollar."We have decided to hike prices from November 1 ranging from up to 5% across almost all product categories, as we are unable to take further hits on account of rupee depreciation," LG Electronics India Head (Electronics) Amitabh Tiwari told Press.

"We will be increasing the price of CTVs by 3.5%, washing machines and refrigerators by 4%, while that of LCDs would remained unchanged as the price decrease benefit will get offset with rupee depreciation. Otherwise prices of LCDs would have decreased by about 7%," Tiwari said.

Rupee depreciation took the Indian currency past the 50 mark against the dollar.Tiwari said the previous production cost was based on the average dollar cost of Rs 43 and it was impossible to absorb it further."With this round of price increase, we will be able to cover the average dollar cost to Rs 49," he said.the company said it continued to be bullish on India and had recently announced plans to invest USD 50 million to enhance its manpower and R&D by 2009.

Sesa Goa Ltd has announced a net profit after tax of Rs 3060.80 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2008 as compared to Rs 821.40 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2007. Total Income has increased from Rs 3492.10 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2007 to Rs 8767.60 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2008.Sesa Goa has posted a net profit of Rs 3366.20 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2008 as compared to Rs 931.00 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2007. Total Income has increased from Rs 4005.50 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2007 to Rs 9211.20 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2008.

Sundaram Clayton Ltd has informed Bombay Stock Exchange(BSE) that the Board of Directors(BOD) of the Company at its meeting held on October 20, 2008, in that they have taken the following decisions:

1. Merger of wholly owned subsidiary with the Company:

a draft Scheme of amalgamation of the wholly owned subsidiary, M/s. Auto (India) Engineering Ltd (AIEL) with the Company. The salient features of the Scheme are as follows:

- Acquisition of assets and liabilities together all rights, duties, obligations of the wholly owned subsidiary of the Company, namely Auto (India) Engineering Ltd (AIEL) by the Company on the Appointed date.

- Cancellation of the entire investment of Rs 5.00 lakhs held in the wholly owned subsidiary, namely AIEL by the Company;

- Dissolution of AIEL without the process of winding up in terms of the said scheme; and

- Continuance of legal obligations of the respective Companies involved under the Scheme;

2. Amendment of object clause through Postal ballot

a proposal to amend the main objects of the Memorandum of Association of the Company by inserting a specific clause for entering into new field of activity viz., internal combustion engines, subject to the approval of the shareholders of the Company through a postal ballot.

The group on Wednesday gave domestic airlines more freedom on the issue of fuel supplies from state-owned oil marketing firms such as BPCL,IOC,HPCL etc.. and also they have warned against sacking employees(the one which happend with Jet Airways).At a meeting of representatives of airlines and oil company executives, called by oil minister Murli Deora and attended by aviation minister Praful Patel, oil firms agreed to increase the credit period from two months to three and the airlines agreed to clear the accumulated dues in equal instalments by March.But there won't be any reduction in the fares for fliers. "Why should we cut fares when we are losing money?" said industrialist Vijay Mallya but expressed satisfaction with the meeting's outcome.Kingfisher,Jet Airways and Air-India who owed heavily to oil marketing firms.

Opto Circuits (India) Limited, India’s leading manufacturer of medical diagnostics and interventional products, During April 2008 has successfully completed acquisition of Criticare Systems, Inc, a leading US-based healthcare company. Criticare Systems, Inc. Now Opto Circuits India Ltd has informed Bombay Stock Exchange(BSE) that the Record Date for the purpose of issue of Bonus shares in the Ratio of 7:10 (Seven Bonus share for every Ten Equity shares held) as approved by the shareholders at their Annual General Meeting(AGM) held on September 30, 2008 is fixed on November 04, 2008.

ICICI Bank has filed the petition to SEBI to check if there was a concerted attempt to hammer its share price. A senior bank employee said that the country’s second largest bank ICICI bank has approached the market regulator SEBI during the last fortnight after rumours started surfacing about the bank’s overseas exposure and a run on its deposits.

In the past two weeks rumours prompted the peoples to withdraw their money from its offices and ATM's. First it happened in tamilnadu some two weeks back ago and this rumours spread all over india.Managing Director & CEO KV Kamath on Tuesday issued a statement saying the bank is well capitalised and financially sound "It has a networth of over Rs 47,000 crore and a capital adequacy ratio of 13.4 per cent on June 30, 2008, as against the regulatory requirement of 9 per cent.This reflects the healthy capital position and comfortable level of leverage. Its banking and non-banking subsidiaries are also well-capitalised," the ICICI bank added.

After an continuous fall in the indian stock market today witnessed smart pullback rally and got strengthened after Finance Minister and RBI clarifications on our present banking and financial system. This rally has been led by banking, capital goods, power, realty, telecom and oil sector stocks. Biggest contributors to this bounce back were second largest private bank ICICI Bank, HDFC, L&T, Telecom major Bharti Airtel, SBI, BHEL, Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, TCS, NTPC and ONGC.

Benchmark indices had opened sharply lower due to steep fall in US markets, as US House of Representatives defeated the USD 700 billion bailout plan in a 205-228 vote but had managed to recover that loss immediately in early trade itself, as if it seemed like markets got factored in that news. Both indices remained strong through the day since then. European markets and US markets were up by 2%.

All these news were enough for the Indian stocks to get temporary pullback from the new lows of 2008. The Sensex closed with a gain of 264.68 points or 2.10% at 12,860.43 after hitting an intraday low of 12,153.55. It was trying to touch 13000 mark in late trade but sell off at higher levels failed to test that mark. It has touched a high of 12,995.20.

The Nifty has clawed back about 3900 mark. It rose 71.15 points or 1.85%, to settle at 3921.20. It has hit an intraday high of 3966.85 and low of 3715.05.

Ashok Leyland Ltd, and the US-based agriculture and forest equipment major John Deere have set up a 50:50 Joint Venture(JV) to manufacture and market construction equipment. "The detailed business plans are being worked out. It will be a greenfield project and the location is not yet finalised," Ashok Leyland MD R. Seshasayee told reporters here Tuesday.

They have not given any details about the financial particulars about the joint venture.

Ashok Leyland John Deere Construction Equipment Ltd, is planning to commence production by 2010. First of all they are going to manufacture loaders such as backhoe loaders and four-wheel drive loaders will be rolled out and later other products like dozers will be manufactured.The vehicles will be jointly branded as Ashok Leyland-John Deere.

Integrated media(iMedia) and entertainment company Compact Disc India (CDI) on Tuesday said content developer iMedia Ventures will invest $10 million in the company and is interested to pick up 15 per cent stake in it.

Compact Disc India(CDI) filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange and and stating that iMedia Ventures has offered to invest $10 million (about Rs 47 crore) in the company's expansion projects.

Further, iMedia Ventures have also shown interest in buying 15% equity shares in Compact Disc India(CDI). These offers would be considered in the next meeting of the board of directors to be held during October.

Texmaco is a K K Birla Group engineering company, has announced 19% dividend for workmen for the year 2007-08, as against a 15% bonus last year 2006-07.

The dividend to the equity shareholders was raised to 75% for FY08 against 40% in the preceding fiscal. The company recorded 101% rise in net profit during the Q1 of the current fiscal at Rs22.82 crore, compared to the same period last year, on the back of its heavy engineering division.Sales grew up by 46% on a year-on-year basis to Rs 280.43 crore.

Essar steel holdings is going to invest more than $4 billion in north america.Already they have acquired Algoma in Canada and Minnesota Steel in the US, as well as greenfield plants in Trinidad & Tobago.The ground breaking ceremony was happened today at minnesota and the chairman Ruia told currentlt this company employs 8000 peoples.Minnesota was acquired in 2007 and has more than 1.4 billion tonnes of iron ore in the Mesabi range.Ruia said, We are excited about starting this project. Today’s groundbreaking is another step towards our goal of building a large presence in the steel sector in the Americas.

In a roller-coaster ride during the week under review, some positive developments at the fag-end of the week helped the benchmark Sensex to rebound from early sharp losses, ending with a gain of over 41 points.Steps taken by US policymakers and other top central banks globally to pump billions of dollars to revive the scary financial system and positive statements by the local government, assisted the Sensex to recover from a nine-week low of 12,558.14 points to close the week above the 14K-level.Marketmen said morale-boosting signals from New Delhi after a Cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, also boosted investor sentiment.The PM's caution came during the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs meeting after Finance Minister P Chidambaram briefed about the financial crisis in US while stating the Indian economy was not affected by the developments.Tracking global trends which rallied after regulators in the UK and US halted short-selling in financial stocks on late Thursday, boosted the badly battered investors' confidence which had touched rock bottom after the collapse of investment bank Lehman Brothers and distress sale of Merrill Lynch.In the week to September 20, the Bombay Stock Exchange 30-share barometer recovered its early losses sharply to end the week at 14,042.32 points, a mere rise of 41.51 points or 0.30 per cent over the previous weekend close.Similarly, the 50-share Nifty of the National Stock Exchange also recouped by 16.80 points or 0.40 per cent to close the week at 4,245.25 points from the last weekend close.RIL, ONGC, HDFC Bank, HDFC, SBI, Bharti Airtel, ACC, Tata Motors, NTPC, Maruti Suzuki and Tata Powers were the major gainers from the Sensex pack, while Ranbaxy, DLF, Jaiprakash Associates, Grasim, Hindalco, ICICI Bank, Reliance Com, REL Infra, Satyam Computer, Sterlite, Tata Steel and TCS suffered a sharp to moderate setback.Reflecting a rally in some of the refinery and banking counters, the BSE-Oil&Gas index rose by 351.98 points or 3.86 per cent and the Bankex by 80.66 points or 1.15 per cent.Although a battered realty segment attracted good buying support on Friday, it was the biggest loser from the sectoral indices. BSE-Realty index tumbled by 591.08 points or 12.59 per cent followed by the BSE-Metal by 847.83 points or 7.79 per cent and the BSE-CD by 264.21 points or 7.39 per cent.Depicting a heavy sell-off in small-cap and mid-cap counters, BSE-Smallcap index plunged by 495.55 points or 7.38 per cent and the BSE-Midcap by 308.36 points or 5.57 per cent.The broad-based BSE-100 Index declined by 58.60 points or 0.80 per cent to end the week at 7,285.77 points from 7,344.37 points.The BSE-200 Index and the Dollex-200 were also quoted further lower at 1,695.81 and 611.44 at the weekend compared to last weekend's close of 1,1717.28 and 626.44 respectively.On the NSE, the S&P CNX Defty eased by 21.50 points or 0.67 per cent to close the week at 3,189.80 from 3,211.30 last weekend and the CNX Nifty Junior also ended the week down by 251.25 points or 3.67 per cent to 6,591.55 points from previous weekend's close of 6,842.80 points.Among the sectoral indices, the BSE Metal Index nosedived by 904.35 points or 7.67 per cent to 10,881.42, the BSE Realty Index by 285.54 points or 5.73 per cent to 4,693.72, the BSE CD Index by 211.00 points or 5.57 per cent to 3,575.28 and the BSE Oil&Gas Index by 536.24 points or 5.56 per cent to 9,116.44.

Rupee eased on Wednesday as weak regional stock markets raised concerns of more capital outflows. for the past one month rupee fallen drastically with dollar($) now it is going to touch 45. it will not be good for asian markets already asian markets are in volatile movement due to several factors.At 9o clock the partially convertible rupee was at 44.88/89 per dollar,Tuesday's close of 44.84/85.and it hit an intraday low of 44.93 on Tuesday, the same situation happened in late November 2006.According to the sources, the rupee had fallen 0.62% this week, taking losses in September to 2.2 percent. It is down 12.3 percent in 2008 after gaining more than 12 percent last year.

The steel ministry has recommended an additional 5% duty on iron ore exports in a bid to reduce domestic prices of steel.We have suggested that export duties on iron ore be raised by another 5% over the present level of 15%,steel minister Ram Vilas Paswan said on the sidelines of a function at MSTC Ltd on Tuesday.The ministry is planning either banning the export of high-grade iron ore or raising export duty on it.Even in the international markets steel prices has been reduced drastically so our domestic players should think of it. we have enough iron ore in our country for our captive usePaswan said his ministry has made a recommendation to the finance ministry, which is currently studying the proposal. On steel prices, Paswan said steel companies have no justification to increase prices if they have a profit margin of 15%.

Package delivery Giants DHL and UPS Inc on Tuesday defended their agreement for UPS to assume flying for struggling DHL in North America, telling Congress the plan would not hurt competition."It's not a merger and it's not anti-competitive," DHL Express Global Chief Executive mullen told."We believe this will leave us a viable competitor, preserving competition in the marketplace," Mullen said.UPS hopes to add $1 billion in revenue, under the 10-year agreement. DHL plans to pay $260 million in severance and benefits to affected employees.

Nowadays IT sectors booming all over the world,at the same time lot of security problems and anti social elements are trying break their security systems this is one which is very important and we have focus on to it and we have to maintain with the help of Exchange Management.

This kind of package will allow administrators within enterprises to undertake several IT initiatives efficiently with the help of Active Directory Optimization,Mobile Workforce Enablement,Migration Tools. we will discuss about the Active Directory Optimization here it will be very useful for IT concerns.Active Directory Tools are playing vital role in Active Directory optimization.

Active Directory Optimization enables IT administrators to maintain legacy systems, implement new services, and reduce costs all at the same time. In this Active Directory Management Provisioning automation, Control and security,and Delegated administration are the key features.Exchange Tools enables you to test and automate the migration tasks, through a simple web interface, dramatically reducing the costs affiliated with this transition.

The 6th Pay Commission report which has come as a Diwali gift for more than 10 lakh workers in Railways, It will cost around Rs 6,500 crore in the current financial year. In this Rs 6,500, Rs 5,000 crore has already been finalised in the current Railway Budget, "We have to make provision for an additional Rs 1,500 crore to meet the requirement," a senior Railway Ministry official said here.To balance this extra expenses the Indian railways planning to increase its revenue and going to take some cost cutting plans.

"We are not sure whether he had meant outsourcing in the software sector or the manufacturing sector. But I don't think the software exports will be affected or slow down...

Such decisions (to outsource) are determined by economic considerations by (US) companies and they will find a way to remain competitive. Outsourcing is one of those ways," Nasscom President Som Mittal told PTI when asked if Obama's comment is targeted at software services exports from countries like India.

India's software exports led by companies like TCS, Infosys and Wipro draw over 70 per cent of revenue from the US market. The software and services exports segment grew by 29 per cent to register revenues of $40.4 billion in 2007-08, up from $31.4 billion in 2006-07.

Aurobindo Pharma Ltd has informed Bombay Stock Exchange(BSE) that the members at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Company held on August 20, 2008, They have discussed and approved the following:

Hi friends did you know about marketing and business stategies? and one more question what is meant by marketing? Marketing is a vital part of business and how your product is reaching the consumers.whether peoples have heared about your product or not.Marketing is in different kind of forms including telemarketing,direct sales,mailing lists and advertising.among this advertising is one of the way to convey the peoples about our product through advertising balloons, helium balloons and advertising blimps.

When ever my gang friends getting time,we used to go out and roam every where in the cities and we used to see very big and visible advertising and helium baloons. This is one of the way to advertise your product or company.so that you can create an awareness to the peoples about your product.

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iphone is released in india on Aug 21st midnight. iphone comes along with both service providers Airtel and vodafone.Airtel got special permission to sell the iphone handsets from yesterday onwards. they are mainly focussing on metro cities delhi,mumbai,bangalore.Already they got aroung 2 lakh registrations for iphone. they are telling that according to first come first serve basis they will distribute the handsets.iphone 8GB is priced around Rs 31000/- and the 16GB model is priced Rs 36100/-

How to maximize our profit in business? This is one of the important question came out of all marketing and other business peoples.Participating in exhibition or Trade shows, advertising are some of the way to maximize your profit.at the same time our trade show booths should have a nice look,then only customers will be attracted towards our stall.To make this we have to opt for experianced trade show and display booth maker.Do you have any idea? No problem I have an idea with me.i came to know about camelback Displays,they are well experianced in Trade show display booths making.Everything is important in trade show display booth including design,banner stand, etc... They have experienced workers,skilled designers,craft man.They are selling full line of custom printed table skirts also. even they will print your logo, full color artwork or text message printed on them. camel back displays are one of the leading trade show booth maker. Banners can be ordered with the hardware. Pipe and drape is also used to make the trade show display booths. so that the booths will be strong. Don't worry about trade shows because camelback displays is with you.

Indian stock market in in downtrend only after US recession,crude oil prices etc.... nowadays in indian stock market volatality is continuing only limited FII's are participating in indian stock market because of the weakness in the the global markets. for the past few days only crude oil prices went down continuously and now settled at around $114/barrel.In some part of india i.e in outskrits of chennai doesn't have petrol and diesel for more than three days. one more important news is also there because of the Reserve Bank of India move on CRR hike all the banks including both private and PSU banks have increased their interest rates for both loans and investment.

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Avon Weighing Systems Ltd has informed Bombay Stock Exchange(BSE) that the Board of Directors of the Company at its Annual General Meeting(AGM) held on August 14, 2008, in that they have discussed the following things:1. The board has subject to the approval of shareholders approved the Change of name of the company from "Avon Weighing Systems Ltd" to "Avon Corporation Ltd".2. The board has subject to the approval of shareholders approved the Increase in the Borrowing power of the Company.3. The board has subject to the approval of shareholders approved the appointment of M/s. Kiran Mattani & Associates, Chartered Accountants, as the Statutory Auditors and resignation of M/s. G M Purohit & Co. Chartered Accountants, as Statutory Auditors due to preoccupation of the Company.4. The board has subject to the approval of the shareholders approved Amendment of Memorandum of Association.

company name:Universal Starch Chem Allied Ltdscrip code:524408Universal Starch Chem Allied Ltd has informed BSE that the Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on August 14, 2008, in that they have recommended 5% dividend.

company:Weizmann Ltdscrip code:523011Weizmann Ltd has informed Bombay Stock Exchange that the Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on August 14, 2008, in that they have discussed about the various issues including audited annual results analysis and has recommend for consideration by the shareholders the declaration of 5% dividend on Equity Shares of Rs 10/- each for the financial year 2007-2008 .

Silver Smith India Ltd has informed Bombay Stock Exchange that a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company will be going to be held on August 22, 2008, to transact the following:1. To Consider and approve the Company's plan to enter the business of mining for silver in various geographical location including overseas properties.2. To decide the time, date and place to call the 14th Annual General Meeting of the Company and consider the Book Closure date for the same.

Vietnam’s largest steel company Vietnam Steel Corporation, Vietnam Cement Industries Corporation and TATA Steel have signed a 30:5:65 JV agreement for the proposed steel complex in Vietnam. Mr Dau Van Hung president of Vietnam Steel Corporation, Mr Nguyen Ngoc Anh of Vietnam Cement Industries Corporation and Mr B Muthuraman MD of TATA Steel signed the JV agreement at a ceremony held in the Head Office of Vietnam Steel Corporation in Hanoi.The MOU for this steel project was signed on 29th May 2007. Subsequently Definitive Agreements were signed today after completion of detailed feasibility studies.4.5 million tonne per year steel complex will be set up in the Vung Ang Economic Zone in Ha Tinh Province of Vietnam. The Integrated Steel Plant will be built in three phases at a total estimated cost of USD 5 billion. While the ultimate capacity of the steel complex will be 4.5 million tonnes per year, the first phase of the complex will be a Cold Rolling Mill to be commissioned by end 2010.

Several employees unions on Thursday said that they are not happy with the Union Cabinet's approval to the recommendations of the Sixth Pay Commission.The All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) claimed the recommendations accepted were "not fully satisfactory", the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU) resented the government's decision terming it "totally inadequate, disappointing and discriminatory towards lower level employees".The Confederation of Central Government Employees and Workers (CCGEW), meanwhile, dubbed the Cabinet approval of the recommendations "anti-employee and pro-officer".The Joint Platform for Action (JPA) of Government and Associate Services Employees' Organisations stated the decision of the Central Government on pay commission reccommendations remained "contrary to the wishes of the Government employees".

Those who are looking for a third party company for warehousing,inventory, assembly and fulfillment services, The right choice for those peoples is AMS fulfillment services.What is AMS? AMS stands for Advantage Media Services(AMS).go and see the difference between other fulfillment companies offers and Advantage Media Services (AMS) delivers.AMS is one of the leading fulfillment services company and they have more no of fulfillment service centre's.AMS will help their clients succeed by staying within budget, and also they take care of their clients' inventories. AMS offers OnGuard Inventory Protection, a safeguard for total inventory management and product fulfillment. AMS having advanced operating systems so the inventory data's will be safely protected from losses and damages.They have latest technology systems, programming resources and user friendly tools allow businesses to manage product fulfillment operations and order fulfillment from their desktops systems with outstanding results.AMS offers solutions for both Business-to-Business (B-2-B) and Business-to-Consumer (B-2-C) clients, including warehousing, Product Fulfillment and Distribution, Pack-out / Assembly, Order fulfillment, Inventory Management, Logistics and Returns Processing services.

Ad-Manum Finance Ltd meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company will be held on August 19, 2008, In that they will discuss about the Audited Annual Accounts for the year ended on March 31, 2008 and to recommend payment of Dividend.Keynote Corporate Services Ltd meeting of the Board of Directors of theCompany will be held on August 22, 2008, to approve and take on record the Audited Financial Results for the year ended on March 31, 2008 and to recommend dividend, if any on Equity Shares for the year 2007-2008.

Simplex Trading and Agencies Ltd has informed Bombay Stock Exchange(BSE) that a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company will be held on August 18, 2008(Monday),In that they are going to consider the following things:1. To discuss at the same time to decide on the proposal of to make a Bonus Issue of Equity Shares.2. To Increase of the Capital and amendment in Memorandum and Articles of Association.3. To fix the date and time for convening an Annual General Meeting(AGM) and to approve draft notice of the same and to authorize the Secretary or other person to issue the notice convening the Extraordinary General Meeting.

Syncom Formulations India Ltd Board of Directors meeting of the Companywill be held on August 21, 2008,In that they are going to discuss about the Audited Financial Accounts for the Company for the year ended March 31, 2008 and to consider about dividend on equity shares for the year 2007-08.i am regularly updating the dividend details of various companies.this is the very important announcement which i got it from Bombay Stock Exchange(BSE)

In the last three years this july 2008 car sales dropped due to oil prices hike and the inflation.Car sales down by 1.71%,At the same time two wheelers sales up by around 20%.According to Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers(SIAM) 89,250 car units were sold in july 2007and 87,724 units sold in july 2008.This is not only because of oil price hike.Vehicle loans that is the interest rates against vehicle loans are keep on increasing, so in urban area and rural area the sales was too bad.

Mede is one of the leading healthcare software provider.Mede provides both healthcare analytics softwares and services such as maintenance etc...this kind of healthcare software products will be very useful to the healthcare organizations and primary hospitals.This kind of healthcare products are very essential for healthcare solutions unit.this software product will be play an vital part in healthcare financing part such as patients bills,balance tracking,etc.Apart from software and services Mede finance provides Web hosting, Security,Infrastructure.They are developing healthcare software products to improve the financial aspects, operational aspects and clinical performance. According to patients paying capacity,kind of service,cash handling and call volumes in healthcare call centres, they will develop the software products to improve the healthcare business.

The State Bank of India (SBI) today increased its benchmark prime lending rate (BPLR) by one percentage point to 13.75 per cent.SBI said the rate hike would have no impact on borrowers who have taken home loans of up to Rs 30 lakh.Depositors can also rejoice as the SBI has decided to revise interest rates on deposits by 25 to 75 basis points.The interest rate on deposits of 1 year to less than 2 years has been raised to 10 per cent from 9.5 per cent earlier.All of them had raised the interest rates on their loans after the Reserve Bank of India raised the repo rate by a hefty 50 basis points and the Cash Reserve Ratio(CRR) by 25 basis points to 9 per cent each after reviewing its monetary policy on July 29.PNB revised its BPLR by 100 basis points to 14 per cent. Apart from PNB, the Bank of Baroda and the Bank of India were the others who raised the benchmark rate by 75 basis points to 14 per cent.In a statement, the SBI said it was insulating both its existing and new home loan borrowers from the BPLR hike.

How to maximize our sales? this is what the question came out of all retail outlet's and other business peoples.Participating in Trade show is one of the way to maximize the sales and profit.at the same time our retail outlet or shop should have a nice look and it should be attractive,then only customers will be attracted towards our outlet.To make this we have to opt for better Trade show display booth creator.I have an idea with me.i came to know about Gilbert Displays,they are specialized in Trade show display booths creation.They have expertised persons,skilled designers,craftspeople and finishing artisans.According to your requirement they will design trade show display booth and Trade show displays also. They will take care of customized wood works,graphics and all display elements will be according to your specifications and requirements.Gilbert Displays has the capability andexperiance in the field of Trade show display booth.

The 133 year old Bombay Stock Exchange(BSE) CEO Rajnikant Patel has resigned his job on thursday, the BSE chief executive officer(CEO) quitting without mentioning any specific reason.Rajnikant Patel’s official term as CEO would have come to an end in September 2008.Rajnikant Patel was not available for comment but some of the BSE officials who asked not to be named said “the lack of trust” in the CEO among board members “forced” him to resign.

Head of corporate affairs Kalyan Bose,said BSE denied this reason and said it was Patel’s personal decision to resign.Patel’s resignation follows a series of recent resignations, including some key executives of BSE.In June, chairman Shekhar Datta and a director, Jamshed Godrej, resigned from BSE’s board. More recently, in July, T.V. Rangaswami, the head of strategy and planning, was asked to resign by the board as was Ashok K. Raut, the chief operating officer, in May. Raut was replaced by Mahesh L. Soneji in mid-July.

The prime Minister's Economic Advisory Counsil(EAC) chairman C.Rangarajan on wednesday(Aug 6) said India's economic growth may come down upto 7.5% within a year. While speaking in the "India Financial Inclusion Summit 2008" he told reporters.

The Indian government today(Aug 8) announced that they hope inflation will surely come down to 8-9% in the next three to six months although it has recently broken the psychological 12% level."Tight monetary measures will tame inflation in three to six months," Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram said during a book reading sessionhere.Pointing out that rising global oil and commodities prices had led to the spiralling inflation, he said, "We have no control over international and commodities prices." "What we are trying to do, giventhe price hike, is to moderate aggregate demand by using tight monetary measures, by sacrificing a bit of growth," he said, adding "that was the only way inflation could be tamed".

Apple iphone came to india on june 2007 and that it is so popular at the sametime it was not affordable it costs around Rs 25000 and also it has more number of bugs. now again new version of iphone is going to hit india through two major mobile network companies Bharti Airtel and Vodafone It will cost around $199-$299 In indian rupee it will cost around Rs 8000-12000.

One of the indian telecom major Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd(BSNL) is not yet proposed its Initial Public Offer(IPO),telecom minister A.Raja said on thursday(AUG 7).He said if Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd(BSNL)entering into the indian stock market means ,Each BSNL employee is eligible to get 500 shares at Rs.10 per share(Face Value).For others,price band range will be around Rs 300-400(Not fixed) per share depends on the market condition.BSNL got Rs 20 billion from Department Of Telecommunications(DOT). this was happened due to TRAI's false decision so it has compensated from the revenues of private telecom companies went to BSNL.Also BSNL got a 3G spectrum block on Thursday.BSNL officials are telling that this Initial Public offer (IPO) will take another six months to get finalised.

Essar business house owned BPO service provider Aegis communications Inc.,has decided to pay $250mn(Rs1,060cr)in cash to acquire 100% stake in US-based peoplesupport Inc.Aegis is going to pay $12.25/share for peoplesupport stockholders throough its Essar services(Mauritius).Peoplesupport has service delivery centres in the phillipines and Costa Rica,offering outsourcing services to clients from banking,traveland other businesses.

Script code:532345company:Gati LtdGati Ltd Annual General Meeting(AGM) of the company held on Aug 01,2008,In that they have discussed about annual accounts for the financial year ended march 31,2008 and also has recommended a dividend of 40% for the year ended june 30,2008(prev year 40%).

Script code:500144company:Finolex cables ltdFinolex cables Ltd Annual General Meeting(AGM) of the company held on July 30,2008,In that they have discussed about various issues including approval of annual accounts for the financial year ended march 31,2008 the payment of dividend at the rate of 75% on the equity share capital.

Script code:500109company:Mangalore Refinery&Petrochemicals Ltd(MRPL)Mangalore Refinery&Petrochemicals Ltd(MRPL) 20th Annual General Meeting(AGM) of the company held on Augest 02,2008,In that they have discussedabout various issues including the payment of dividend at the rate of12% on the equity share capital i.e Rs 1.20 per equity share and 0.01%on the preference share capital.

Tata motors is one of the leading vehicle manufacturer.tata motors announced its first quarter results,net profit down by 30.13% in net profit to Rs 326crore in june quarter due to forex losses on its long-term loans and increase in the cost of raw materials.Tata motors MD Ravi kant said,"The pressure from raw materials price raises has become very high.This year will be most challenging year forAutomobile industry.We have not increased prices earlier and the process will continue."Q1 2007 gain:Rs 205.89 cr

Both public sector banks and private sector banks have increased the lending interest rate after Reserve Bank of India(RBI)announcent on tuesday. all the banks were upset,already some of the banks results were down, in indian stock market bank sector went down continuously.some of the banks already increased the lending interest rates and someof them are reviewing and they are are going to announce the new revised lending interest rates on thursday(July31).Among public sector banks Punjob National Bank(PNB) increased rates by 1%(100bps)and among private sector banks Axis bank increased its interest rates by 1/2%.

one of the leading automobile and tractor major Mahindra&Mahindra(M&M)planning to enter into a two wheeler motorcycles segment. they alreadyhad a talk with pune based kinetic motor,finally M&M is buying the assets of kinetic motor for Rs 110 crore and M&M will hold 80% and theremaining 20% will be owned by kinetic motor company.The new company name is Mahindra kinetic scooters and motorcycles.

In most of the cases investors money is not refunded properly even after allotment of the shares.so lots complaints are there. to resolve this SEBI is planning to change the rules on IPO money. this will be helpful to retail investors.According to new rules companies have to collect the IPO money after allotment of the shares for retail and other investors,SEBI chairman Bhave said "we hope that the pilot projects will start by end of Augest month.If the pilot project succeeds then we will rollout all over the country" he said

What is there in Pilot project?Three major things are there in this pilot project1.Banks will be responsible to resolve the investors problems.2.In case of failure of an issue,the bank will have to immediately release the block on receipt of request from the registrars.3.Book running lead managers will have to intimate the issue opening date to Self-Certified Syndicate Banks(SCSBs) in writing.Once this is stabilises institutional investors have to pay 100% amount,earlier it was 10%. This system is expected in this year end.

Bata india ltd 75th Annual General Meeting(AGM) was held on july 19th.In that meeting they have discussed about the quarter results and oer all annual profit and about the future plans.Finally the director announced 20% dividend.those who had bata india ltd shares on may30, 2008 they are eligible for dividend.

Crompton Greaves on july 27th announced a net profit of Rs 122.61 cr for the quarterended June 30,In the previous year quarter the companyhad net profit of Rs 89.9 cr in the first quarter of FY'08, compare to last year first quarter this time net profit up by 36%. Crompton Greaves(CG) reported a standalone net profit of Rs 88.9 cr in the first quarter, a 29.29% growth over previous year's profit of Rs 68.76 cr. Total income of the company rose to Rs 1,090.98 cr in the latest quarter, from Rs 908.66 crore in the same period in FY'08. today in BSE Crompton Greaves went up by around 10%.

4.Trust vote against UPA GovernmentBecause of these four things Indian Stock Market was in downtrend continuously.US Recession is one of the major factor because most of the FII's started selling their whole position's to balance their losses happend in US,Due to heavy selling market went down automatically.while this is happening the domestic peoples also started selling because of panic.nowadays some of the FII's are there in indian stock market.but domestic big peoples are not playing in indian stock market.this is what the main reason for downtrend in indian stock market.

Prime minister Manmohan singh's UPA government won the trust vote in the parliament on Tuesday parliment.After this today(july27) indian stock markets BSE sensex up by 600 points in opening.Among all the sectors especially bank,reality,power stocks taken up the market to high level.both FII's and domestic investors are participated actively in indian stock market after an long time.BSE’s Sensex closed at 14959.50, up 855.30 points or 6.06 per cent. It touched a high of 14,979.90 and low of 14,568.22. NSE’s Nifty ended at 4,481 up 5.68 per cent or241 points up.

Rajoo Engineers ltd board of directors meeting held on june 30,2008,inthat they have recommended a dividend of Rs 2.10 (21%)per equity shareof Rs 10 each subject to the approval of shareholders in the AGM.

Rapicut Carbides Ltd board of directors meeting will be held on july 30,2008,the following things they are going to discuss1.Record and Approval of audited financial results for the year 2007-08.2.To recommend dividend for the year ended March 31,2008&appropriation of profits.

Adarsh Derivatives-Board of Directors(BOD) Meeting on july 12,2008,In that meeting they are going to discuss about the followig things1.14th Annual General Meeting Notice approval and Director's Report for the year ended March31,2008.2.Preferential allotment of equity shares to promoters and non-promoters.

Retailers already announced a 10% cut in prices.but steel producers hada meeting with a steel secretary on 3rd july 2008.In that meeting they have decided to fix Maximum retail price(MRP) for traders and retailers.at present the rate was not constant for all traders and retailers.JSW steel india vice chairman & MD,said,There is no transparentmechanism till date in most of the companies.steel authority has this mechanism where at the district level there have this MRP concept.So in today's discussion it came out clearly that we as an industry shouldhave MRP sort of a mechanism at the retail outlets from the small sellers.

Kingfisher's vijay mallaya is planning to buy 26% stake in low cost airlines spice jet from two major share holders.vijay mallya is in talkwith the gulf countries based investor istithmar and the british person kansagra family,Each of them hold 13% in spice jet.mallaya is planning to spend $300 million in this deal.if the deal worked well means mallaya's kingfisher airlines will become top in the indian sky market.

Raj packaging board informed Bombay Stock Exchange that the board meeting is going happen on june 30,2008.In that board of directors meeting they are going to discuss about the Quater results and to take some decision about dividend.

KPR Mill Ltd informed BSE that the board meeting is going happen on june 27,2008.In that board meeting they are going to discuss about various issues and to take some decision about final dividend.

kaashyap Technologies Ltd has informed BSE that the Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on June 06, 2008, has decided the following:The Board was apprised of the products of Fidelity Financials Ltd., Mauritius, holder ofIntellectual Property Rights in ERP Software Solutions for Hotels, Resorts, Textiles, Trading and Package Tourism Industries.The Board after detailed discussions on the marketability of the products and also possible penetration into the ERP Software Solutions market, decided to acquire the IPR of the product.The Valuation Report of the products of Fidelity Financials Ltd., Mauritius, submitted by the Fidelity was placed before the Board. The Board was apprised that the valuation of theIPR of the product has been done at USD 9.5 Million.The Board further appointed Deloitte Haskins & Sells to carry out a valuation of the IPR products of Fidelity Financials Ltd., Mauritius and arrive at a final consideration price.The Board further constituted a Management Committee consisting of Mr. A Sivakumaran, Director, Mr. R Dakshinamurthy, Director and Ms. V Vasumathy, Company Secretary to obtain a Valuation Report from Deloitte Haskins & Sells and authorized the committee to decide on the consideration for acquisition of IPR of the Company and to decide on the mode of consideration which may be either through issue of Global Depository Receipts (GDRs) on a back to back basis / cash / equity Shares.

Engineers India Ltd has informed BSE that the Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on June 03, 2008, inter alia, has recommended 70% as final dividend on the paid up share capital. The total dividend for the year 2007-08 works out at 110% of paid up share capital including an interim dividend @ 40%. The above is subject to the approval of shareholders in AGM.

Power major ABB in India has won the orders worth Rs 295 cr to provide power solution for JSW Energy for its upcoming 4300 MW thermal power plant in Ratnagiri in the state of Maharashtra(Western India).power solution including electrical balance of plant,400 KV gas insulated switchgear substation and generator transformers.JSW will feed the power produced through the power plant into the country`s western grid. The JSW Group has a presence in the steel, power cement, aluminium, and software and infrastructure sectors.The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs more than 110,000 people.ABB is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customer to improve performance while lowering environmental impact.

The Sensex opened with a negative of 211 points at 15,852 owing to weakness due to global markets.The index touched a day's low of 15,709 in morning hours, it recovered partially and touched a day's high of 15,985 due to some buying in oil & gas sector(HPCL,BPCL,IOC.Etc..). The BSE Sensex finally ended with a loss of 100 points at 15,962.The NSE Nifty settled with a loss of 24 points at 4,716. The market breadth was negative - out of 2,722 stocks traded, 1,817 declined, 847 advanced and 58 were unchanged today.

Index losers Bharti Airtel tumbled 4.1% to Rs 841. Reliance Infrastructure down 3.9% at Rs 1,125.Satyam declined 3.6% to Rs 500. BHEL and HDFC slipped around 3% each to Rs 1,548 and Rs 2,459, respectively.Jaiprakash Associates dipped 2.6% to Rs 206. Larsen & Toubro lost 2.3% to Rs 2,849.HDFC Bank dropped 1.8% to Rs 1,282. Infosys was down 1.4% at Rs 1,922.NTPC, Tata Steel and Grasim were the other major losers, down 0.7% each at Rs 160, Rs 862 and Rs 2,194, respectively.Index gainers ACC gained 3.7% to Rs 649. Ranbaxy moved up 3% at Rs 530.DLF and Wipro advanced 2.6% each to Rs 582 and Rs 508, respectively.Reliance was up 2.2% to Rs 2,407. Tata Motors and Cipla added 1.3% each to Rs 570 and Rs 210, respectively.Hindalco and ONGC were up 1.1% each at Rs 184 and Rs 842, respectively.

Alkyl Amines Chemicals Ltd has informed BSE that a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company will be held on June 20, 2008, inter alia, to consider the following:1. Approval of Audited Financial Results for the year ended March 31, 2008.2. Recommendation or passing over of dividend.

Nahar Industrial Enterprises Ltd has informed BSE that a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company will be held on June 10, 2008, inter alia, to take up the following matters.1. To consider and approve the Audited Financial Results of the Company for the year / period ended on March 31, 2008.2. To consider and recommend the dividend, if any, for the financial year ended on March 31, 2008.

Petrol prices are expected to rise by Rs10-20 a litre as the government is considering decontrol of fuel prices, a move that may relieve public sector oil marketing companies of the burden of subsidised sales that have cost them over Rs200,000 crore in lost revenues.With the price of crude oil touching an all-time high of $135 a barrel in the international markets, the government is weighing plans to decontrol petrol prices while keeping some subsidies on diesel, cooking gas and kerosene."One of the options being considered is deregulating petrol prices," a petroleum ministry official said, adding, "The country's preferred auto fuel diesel will, however, continue to be subsidised even though a marginal Rs2-3 a litre hike in prices may be announced."With petrol, currently being sold at a loss of Rs16.34 a litre and diesel at a loss of Rs23.49 per litre, a hike in petrol prices would mean that it will cost around Rs70 a litre in a metros like Mumbai.Deregulating petrol price is the one option being considered after the finance ministry turned down petroleum ministry's request for withdrawing the five per cent customs duty on crude oil and that on petrol and diesel to 2.5 per cent from current 7.5 per cent.The ministry had also sought lowering of excise duty on the two fuels but finance ministry is in no mood to oblige, the official said.Petroleum ministry officials also content that unlike diesel, which is widely consumed by goods transporters, a rise in petrol prices will only have negligible or little impact on inflation and price deregulation would not add to the already high inflation rate.However, deregulating petrol would lower the revenue losses of oil marketing companies by just Rs20,000 crore.State-run oil firms, meanwhile, have raised the security deposit for new cooking gas (LPG) connections by Rs400 to Rs1,250 per cylinder.Indian Oil(IOC), Bharat Petroleum(BPCL) and Hindustan Petroleum(HPCL) raised refundable security deposit for new connections to Rs1,250 per cylinder from Rs850 due to rise in the cost of steel, which is used as an input, an industry official said.

Geojit Financial Services, a leading retail stock broking company, announced on Friday the consolidated net profit zoomed 2.06 times to Rs 118.20 million in the fourth quarter ended March 2008 as compared with Rs 57.40 million in the same quarter, a year ago. The consolidated revenues for the quarter surged 78% to Rs 643.5 million compared with Rs 361.4 million in the same quarter, last year.Stock broking firm Geojit Financial Services on Friday said the company's board has approved the offer from French banking major BNP Paribas to acquire a 35 per cent stake in one of its subsidiaries.The board has also recommended a final dividend of 70%, or Rs 0.70 a share of the face value of Re 1 a share for the financial year 2007-08, subject to the approval of the shareholders of the company at the ensuing annual general meeting of the company.

Crude oil hits $135/barrel because of that Petrol and diesel prices have been raised marginally by 3-5 paise per litre after the government decided to hike the commission paid to dealers for the sale of fuel.Dealers' commission effective midnight will be Rs 28 per kilolitre for petrol and Rs 31 per kilolitre for diesel, an Indian Oil Corporation official said.The effect of the increase in the commission will be rise in prices of petrol and diesel, effective midnight(May23)

After 7 yearsof suspension KGN Industries listed in BSE on wednesday.Initially it was opened at Rs 100 and after sometiome it went up to Rs 55,000.no one knows what happened to that stock,that too the volume was too low 827 only.Someone was surely playing funny on a day when trading in KGN shares resumed after the revocation of a suspension order issued in 2001, and when there were no circuit filters applicable. Individual shareholders have a stake of just 1.43% (or 3.18 lakh shares) in KGN. Almost half, or 49%, is held by the promoter group.Another 49.5% is with domestic corporate bodies. Anyone could have bought and sold.After opening at Rs 100 and briefly holding at those levels, the scrip zoomed to an all-time high at Rs 55,000 per share. That's 76,288% more than its intra-day low of Rs 72. It closed the day at Rs 15,001. All this activity was on volumes of just 827 shares, and before trading in the counter was stopped at 12.20 pm.For FY '08, KGN reported a profit of Rs 1.51 crore, which puts its earnings per share at Rs 0.68.

Indian Stock Markets have slipped sharply in the opening trades on back of heavy overnight losses in the US markets and a weak start to the equity markets across Asia. Further the sentiments have also dampened as US light crude oil for July delivery set a closing record of $133.17 in New York Mercantile Exchange trading, up more than US$4 per barrel and then proceeded to march to another record intraday high of $134.10 in electronic trading after the settlement. Among the 30-scripts of Sensex, 27 stocks are in red and only 3 stocks are in green. Reliance Industries, ICICI Bank, L&T and HDFC Bank are among the major laggards. At 10:00 am (IST), the BSE 30-share Sensex slipped 193 points at 17,049 and NSE Nifty was down 49 points at 5,068. Asian stocks fell for a third day today, extending a global slump, after oil rose to a record and the Federal Reserve signaled it is done cutting interest rates. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index fell 1% to 150.49 as of 11:34 a.m. in Tokyo, with almost four stocks dropping for each that climbed. All 10 industry groups declined. All of Asia's benchmark indexes retreated, with Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average declining 1.2% to 13,762.27. US stocks sank on Wednesday as crude oil surged further on a surprising weakness in government's weekly fuel supply report. Sentiment also got hit after the minutes from the Federal Reserve's last meeting showed policy makers were reluctant to cut rates. The S&P 500 slumped 22.69 points, or 1.6%, to 1,390.71. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slid 227.49 points, or 1.8%, to 12,601.19. The Nasdaq Composite Index dived 43.99 points, or 1.8%, to 2,448.27. Stocks in Europe fell on record crude prices, resulting in sharp losses for automakers and airlines. The pan-European Dow Jones Stoxx 600 index fell 0.9% to 323.16 as crude-oil prices run up as high as $132.08 a barrel. The UK's FTSE 100 edged up 0.1% to 6,198.10, while the German DAX 30 fell 1.1% to 7,040.83 and the French CAC-40 dropped 0.5% to 5,027.55.

In the emerging markets, the Bovespa in Brazil slid 1.7% to 72,294 while the IPC index in Mexico was down 1.3% at 31,126. The RTS index in Russia gained 0.6% to 2467 while the ISE National 30 index in Turkey fell 0.75% to 50,360.

Ranklin Solutions Ltd has informed BSE that the Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on May 20, 2008 has decided to acquire 51% of the shareholding in Logic Bytes Pvt Ltd for a total consideration of Rs 91.80 Lacs. M/s. Logic Bytes Pvt Ltd is predominantly in the business of BPO / ITES.

GMR Infrastructure Ltd has informed BSE that the Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on May 20, 2008, inter alia, has approved the proposal of Amalgamation of GMR Aviation Pvt Ltd with the Company and to widen the Objects clause of Memorandum of Association of the Company by including the aviation and other businesses.

Educomp Solutions has invested 24.5 million dollars for acquiring 51% stake in US-based Learning.Com, a provider of web-enhanced instruction.Educomp has acquired 51 per cent stake in Learning.Com, the company said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange(BSE), adding that it has invested a total of 24.5 million dollars in the transaction, which included the purchase of existing shares as well as infusion of new capital into the company.Through this deal, Educomp has got distribution access to over 800 districts and leverages its substantial content development and IT capabilities to reach out to North American markets.Learning.Com, founded in 1999, serves nearly two million students in schools across the United States and has partnership with schools and districts throughout the United States.This partnership would facilitate both Learning.Com and Educomp to bring the entire suite of Educomp's intellectual property to schools in the US and bring Learning.Com's products to Educomp's four million users in India and SE Asia.This is Educomp's second strategic investment after the acquisition of Singapore-based Ask n Learn.

State Bank of India(SBI) has put on hold financing of new tractor and other capital equipment, a move that can have reflection on agriculture sector, a priority area for the government.SBI has issued a circular to all its branches, saying the "bank has put on hold financing new tractor and farm mechanisation activities, which include power tiller and combine harvester, with immediate effect in view of very high overdues in this sub-segment of agri advances."Some 2 or 3 months back only Finance Minister P Chidambaram announced a whopping Rs 60,000-crore debt waiver and debt relief scheme for distressed farmers.In the tractor segment, SBI has been facing a very high rate of non-payment from farmers and this was the main reason to stop financing temporarily."The decision will be reviewed based on the progress achieved in reduction of overdues, in due course," the circular from the Agri Business Unit -- Product Development and Management Department of SBI said.

NTPC Tamil Nadu Power Company will receive a term loan of Rs 3,796 cr from Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) for a mega power project in the state.The project will be commissioned in the Eleventh plan and is likely to add 1,000 MW thermal generation capacity to the state. Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to this effect confirming REC commitment to the project was signed recently in Chennai.REC has signed an MoU with Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) to provide project finance support of the order of Rs 16,000 crore for the TNEB’s proposed 3,000 MW generation capacity addition and related transmission and distribution network development schemes to be implemented during the Eleventh plan period.The project, coming up at Kuruvimedu village in Ennore near Chennai, when commissioned will be the first 500 MW thermal unit in the state and is expected to be commissioned in 2010-11, the Ministry of Power said. The project, coming up at Kuruvimedu village in Ennore near Chennai, when commissioned will be the first 500 MW thermal unit in the state and is expected to be commissioned in 2010-11, the Ministry of Power said.The entire work of the plant is awarded to Bharat Heavy Electricals (BHEL), the Ministry added.

Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL), quietly hiked the prices of all its models, except Grand Vitara, with effect from May 17, the second largest manufacturer, Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL), is likely to hike prices by the month-end. Even players like General Motors India are likely to announce new prices this month. “Maruti’s price increase ranges from Rs 1,000 to Rs 15,000 across different categories. But for our newly launched Swift Dzire, it has gone up by Rs 18,000 as the earlier price was an introductory offer,” says a company official, adding that the increase would have been higher than this had there not been a recent reduction in steel prices. Around a fortnight ago, steel Companies had announced a price reduction of Rs 4,000 per tonne on flat steel, which goes into car manufacture.“Input costs have been rising and Hyundai also plans to increase prices by the end of this month,” said a company official without giving details.The spokesperson for General Motors India, P Balendran, said, “Though there has been a reduction in the prices of steel, there has been a significant increase in the prices of other raw materials, and this has added to the overall input costs. Also, with the rising cost of fuel, there has been a significant increase in the transportation cost. As a result, we are evaluating the overall impact and would be revising the prices by a little over 1% at the beginning of June.”

Sonal Varma, an economist with Lehman Brothers, said she expected the Reserve Bank of India to hike the cash reserve ratio (CRR) — the portion of deposit that banks keep with the central bank — by at least half a percentage point during the year and the government to take more fiscal and trade measures. The RBI has already increased CRR to suck out over Rs 27,000 crore liquidity from the system.Crisil principal economist D. Joshi said, “The inflation would continue to move up in the coming weeks as there was pressure of the depreciating currency and high crude prices. The depreciating rupee is offsetting fiscal measures taken by the government.”The government is in a fix over prioritising between growth and inflation. Amid rising prices, industrial growth has dipped to a mere 3 per cent in March. Besides the hike in CRR, the government has taken many fiscal measures such as a cut in customs duties on products such as edible oil, steel inputs and skimmed milk powder.

Inflation marched to a near-four-year high of 7.83 per cent for the week ended May 3, frustrating the government which has unleashed a volley of fiscal and some measures to rein in prices.In the previous week, the rate of inflation was 7.61 per cent, while it was 5.74 per cent a year ago.However, prices of cement, iron and steel fell, giving some respite to the government. These items have been among the major contributors to the recent surge in inflation. Iron and steel prices declined 1.7 per cent, while cement fell 0.4 per cent.Finance minister P. Chidambaram today blamed the spurt in inflation to the high prices of manufacturing items, power and fuel and lubricants. He said the silver lining was the declining trend in food inflation.According to the finance minister, “Unless crude prices decline, I am afraid we are stuck with high fuel inflation.”

Engineering and construction major Larsen & Toubro (L&T) Friday said it will explore the potential of the Indian power generation market along with Atlanta headquartered GE Energy. In a statement issued here, R.N. Mukhija, president (operations) and member of the L&T board, emphasised that GE Energy’s power plant automation solutions “were the key issues that we were looking for in order to complete our electrical and automation suite”.As per the strategic agreement signed between the two companies, GE Energy will provide its power plants main control system products to L&T which, in turn, will tap the Indian market.Jayaraman Kishore from GE Energy said the deal would help them showcase their power plant automation products as “L&T has a strong presence in the Indian market”.

European stocks gained on better earnings from BNP Paribas SA and European Aeronautic, Defence & Space. While Asian markets climbed led by BHP Billiton, the world`s biggest miner on speculation China is scouting for acquisition in mining space probably in BHP to secure more resources to meet growing needs of the Asian`s second biggest economy.However, shares in US fell paced by retail and financial companies after the consumer confidence slipped to the lowest in 28 years and Merrill Lynch reduced ratings of two regional banks. Overseas investors bought net of Rs 15.25 billion worth equities over the week including provisional figures.

India`s benchmark index Sensex made a smart come back by posting more than 4% rise over the week helped by encouraging signs in global markets, heavy investments from overseas buyers and rally in metal stocks. Hindalco Industries, Reliance Communication(R Com), Reliance Energy(REL), Ranbaxy Laboratories and ICICI Bank led the gains.Broad-based rally in the market was led by metal, IT, consumer durable, tech and banking shares.BSE mid-caps and small-caps climbed 1.96% and 1.35% respectively over the week.Despite several attempts to control rising prices by government, inflation is no mood to stop rising, which soared to a 3 1/2 year peak at 7.83% fuelled by high prices of food items and manufactured products, thereby, pressurizing the central bank to raise borrowing costs further to tame prices.

Top Dubai based real estate majors(Emaaar MGF, Limitless and DP World) has shown much interest to enter into the Indian infrastructure segment including Multiplexes,Multi storeyed buildings and airport development projects. Some of the dubai based developers who have already invested in India are plans to increase their investments in the country. The offer of increased investment was made during a presentation by the Dubai-based companies to External Affairs Minister, Pranab Mukherjee, who is on a three day visit to Dubai.The Companies including Emaaar MGF, Limitless and DP World are keen to enter the airport development projects.

Nagarjuna Fertilizers and Chemicals Ltd plans to set up overseas plants and foray into complex fertilisers to encourage growth that is currently restricted by government controls.Nagarjuna has signed an initial agreement to set up 1mn tonne a year urea and ammonia plant in south Iran, estimated to cost around $600mn.Indian companies sell fertilizers below market rates to farmers, which is not compensation for the difference is often delayed or in the form of bons at discounted rates, which leads them to decide against capacity expansion in country for over a decade. Nagarjuna plans to set up a urea plant in Nigeria and is in talks to tie-up gas supplies in Middle East and other regions.

Crude oil price has reached $128/barrel so that State-owned oil companies informed government that they will forced to impose LPG quotas per family and NO new connections and lower the supplies of diesel, petrol and kerosene, however government is yet to take any decision on this issue.Companies like Indian Oil, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum are running short of cash, since they are selling fuel at huge losses. Fuel prices in India are fixed by government and are reluctant to hike prices in the run-up to next year's general elections. Government is unlikely to allow these companies to go ahead with their plan, adds daily.Top officials of IOC, HPCL and BPCL ealier met petroleum ministry official to apprise them of the growing losses. Some of the radical suggestions from the oilcos include: No additional LPG connections, quota per family, no imports of diesel and continuance of quota for kerosene, said daily.

Reliance Communications (RCom) has received a loan of $750-million (Rs 3,000 crore) for a 10-year period from China Development Bank to fund its nationwide GSM launch.The loan would essentially finance the company's GSM equipment order placed with Chinese network major Huawei. The order is spread over a 3-year period and is likely to be finalised soon. The order will have both 2G and 3G components.In January this year, RCom had awarded a nationwide GSM rollout contract for electronics valued at about $500-$600 million to the Chinese company Huawei. The contract is for 14 circles for which RCom was awarded GSM spectrum. RCom's equipment order for Huawei is for its first nationwide GSM rollout contract for electronics. More such contracts for various equipment categories are expected to be signed over the next couple of months. RCom plans to invest over Rs6,000 crore in electronic equipment alone for its GSM rollout.Sources said the company has received all necessary approvals including that of RBI for the said amount, whose tenure is for 10 years and carries a coupon rate of Libor plus 80 bps. NNSources said the loan would enhance RCom's cost structures as the next best option available offers a tenure of 6-7 years or a coupon rate higher by 70-80 basis points.This is the single largest loan extended to an Indian company by the China Development Bank. For its GSM rollout RCOM would lease out passive infrastructure from Reliance Infratel, its 95- per cent owned tower firm.

Tech Mahindra India’s leading IT solutions provider to the telecom industry has bagged a $700-million contract from British Telecom (BT) for transforming and improving BT’s IT estate or infrastructure. This is one of the largest contracts that any Indian IT outsourcing company has won in recent months. Earlier, Tech Mahindra had won a $350-million contract and a $1 billion IT outsourcing deal from BT. The company is focusing on large fixed-price deals, which allows greater flexibility to improve margins. These deals are generally for three to five years, and Tech Mahindra has to take end-to-end responsibility for the improvement of existing processes. The company is due to announce its annual results on May 19 and refused to give more details on this deal.

Tata Motors on Friday announced it has launched a new variant of its hatchback 'Indica', equipped with a dual fuel engine for petrol and LPG, priced Rs 3.27-Rs 3.42 lakhs (ex-showroom, Delhi).The new 'Indica V2 Xeta LPG' would come with a 1.2 litre MPFI (Multi Point Fuel Injection) engine with two Electronic Control Units(ECU), the company said in a statement."The model is equipped with a dual fuel (petrol and LPG) engine, which reduces CO2 emissions by about 10 per cent, while delivering excellent fuel efficiency both in the city and on highways," Tata Motors said.The engine of the car would meet Bharat Stage III emission norms and could be upgraded to Euro IV norms as well, it said."The Xeta LPG will initially be launched in two variants - GLE and GLS. The Xeta LPG GLE variant is priced at Rs 3.27 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi), while the Xeta LPG GLS variant is priced at Rs 3.42 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi)," the statement said.

1)Empee Distilleries fixes Record Date for interim dividendScrip Code:532920 Company Name:Empee Distilleries LtdEmpee Distilleries Ltd has informed BSE that May 21, 2008 has been fixed as the Record Date for the purpose of payment of interim dividend(Rs 3).

2)IMP Powers fixes Record Date for interim dividendScrip Code:517571 Company Name:IMP Powers LtdIMP Powers Ltd has informed BSE that May 21, 2008 has been fixed as the Record Date for the purpose of payment of interim dividend(Rs 0.50).

3)Logix Microsystems fixes Record Date for interim dividendScrip Code:532341 Company Name:LOGIX MICRO Logix Microsystems Ltd has informed BSE that May 22, 2008 has been fixed as the Record Date for the purpose of payment of interim dividend(Rs 4).

4)NMDC fixes Record Date for Bonus(2:1) IssueScrip Code:526371 Company Name:NMDC LtdNMDC Ltd has informed BSE that May 22, 2008 has been fixed as the Record Date for the purpose of issue of bonus shares of the Company

AXIS Bank Ltd has informed BSE that the Board of Directors of the Bank at its meeting held on April 21, 2008, inter alia, has recommended a dividend of Rs 6.00 per share (60%) for the year ended March 31, 2008 (previous year Rs 4.50 per share (45%)), subject to the approval of the members at the ensuing Annual General Meeting(AGM).Ex-date:22nd maydividend:Rs 6

JSW Steel Ltd has informed BSE that the Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on May 05, 2008, inter alia, has recommended transacted the following:1. Dividend at the stipulated rate of 10% on the 27,90,34,907, 10% Cumulative Redeemable Preference Shares of Rs 10 each & 11% on the 99,00,000, 11% Cumulative Redeemable Preference shares of Rs 10 each (11% CRPS) along with arrears for the period March 10, 2007 to March 31, 2007 on the said 11% CRPS of the Company has been recommended for the year ended March 31, 2008.2. Dividend at the rate of 140% amounting to Rs 14 per equity share on the 18,70,48,635 Equity Shares of Rs 10 each of the Company has been recommended for the year ended March 31, 2008.Further the Company has informed that, the Register of Members & Share Transfer Books of the Company will remain closed from May 23, 2008 to May 27, 2008 (both days inclusive) for the purpose of payment of dividend & Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the company.

Century Extrusions Ltd has informed BSE that the Board of Directors of the Company at its meeting held on May 08, 2008 have decided the Record date as May 26, 2008 for the purpose of the following :1. Payment of Dividend for the financial year ending March 31, 2008.2. Rights Issue of 3,30,00,000 Equity Shares of Re 1 each for cash at a price of Rs 4 per equity share including premium of Rs 3 per Equity Share aggregating to Rs 1320 lacs to the existing shareholders in the ratio of 33 equity share for every 47 equity shares held.

A consortium led by Hyderabad-based infrastructure company Lanco Infratech Ltd, or LITL, will build the Rs8,000 crore Vizhinjam International Container Transshipment Port in Kerala.The port will be more than 16m deep, enabing big ships to load container cargo arriving from smaller ports, or from smaller feeder ships.LITL, which earned Rs1,647 crore in financial year 2007-08, has business interests in construction, real estate, roads, power and airports. It has tied up with Malaysian container terminal company Pembinan Radzai Sdn Bhd for the Vizhinjam project. The LITL-led consortium won the bid against three others, including a consortium led by Nagarjuna Construction Co. Ltd (that included Singapore-based Overseas Port Management Pte. Ltd and Maytas Infra Ltd), another led by Gammon Infrastructure Projects Ltd (that included Videocon Industries Ltd, Gammon India Ltd, and Sical Logistics Ltd), and the third led by DS Constructions Ltd (that included Apollo Enterprises Ltd, Zoom Developers Pvt. Ltd and Portia Management Services Ltd). Vizhinjam is located 16km south of capital Thiruvananthapuram. The port will be built on a 33-year build, own, operate and transfer basis.The consortium will develop the project in four phases with a total capacity of handling 6.5 million TEUs, or twenty-foot equivalent units, used to measure container cargo. It will construct the first phase in five years. The Vizhinjam port is expected to attract traffic now handled by international ports at Colombo in Sri Lanka, Al-Salalah in Oman, Malaysia, and Singapore.

Shareholders of MphasiS have some reason to cheer,The stock jumped 12.9% in two trading sessions after Hewlett-Packard (HP) announced it would acquire Electronic Data System (EDS).EDS holds 60.9% stake in MphasiS.The acquisition brings with itself a hope of an open offer for at least 20% by HP.The Securities and Exchange Board of India’s regulations call for the acquirer (here HP) to make an open offer for at least 20% of the target company’s shares if there is a change in management control.Importantly, no open offer need be made if the HP-EDS deal is a merger.In 2002, when HP acquired Compaq Computer Corp, it had also bought out Digital Globalsoft (the majority of which was held by Compaq) and eventually delisted it. The initial floor price was set at Rs 566 per share and the final delisting happened at Rs 850 per share.The shareholders of MphasiS perhaps expect history to repeat itself.However, some analysts maintain that if HP has no intention of delisting MphasiS, the open offer would be more or less similar to the average share price in the past six months.It sure augurs well for MphasiS shareholders that HP does not have any listed subsidiary across the world.Also, other companies in the space have given good returns to investors at such times. For instance, Flextronics Software Systems (now Aricent) set the floor price at Rs 575 per share and the shares were later de-listed at Rs 725 per share.A more recent example is that of iGate Global Solutions (IGS), delisted in January this year. Though the floor price for delisting IGS was set at Rs 288.90 per share, the shares were eventually de-listed much higher, at Rs 410 per share.

French cement company Giant Lafarge today bagged Larsen & Toubro’s ReadyMix Concrete (RMC)business (L&T Concrete) for Rs 1,480 crore. Through this acquisition, Lafarge will gain control of 66 concrete plants located across India and garner a market share of around 25 per cent.the acquisition would increase its earnings per share from 2009. With this acquisition Lafarge claimed it would become the leader in India’s readymix concrete (RMC) market.Though the RMC market is now at a nascent stage in India, it is felt that it has strong potential as the Indian construction market is developing to meet rising demand for housing and infrastructure. Lafarge said the acquisition would be an important step to develop its concrete business in the emerging markets.It is also expected to provide the group with an excellent platform to develop further its concrete business in the fast growing Indian market.Lafarge entered the Indian market in 1999 with the acquisition of Tata Steel’s cement business. This buyout was followed by the purchase of the Raymond cement facility in 2001. At present, Lafarge has three cement plants in India, including two units in Chhattisgarh and a grinding plant in Jharkhand.Lafarge’s total cement production capacity in India stands at around 5.5 million tonnes, and the group has launched an expansion programme to more than double its capacity in the next five years.Operations at its first greenfield readymix concrete plant started in April this year, and the group is building a plasterboard plant in north India, with an annual capacity of around 10 million square metres. The company is present in key markets that include Delhi, Calcutta, Mumbai and Bangalore.It was in December last year that L&T decided to hive off its RMC business into a separate company called L&T Concrete. L&T’s capacity in RMC is over 4 million cubic metres. It is understood that Holcim was also interested in L&T Concrete. This, however, could not be independently verified from the group.Commenting on the acquisition, Lafarge chairman and CEO Bruno Lafont said, “Lafarge was the first in its industry to move into aggregates and concrete in a significant way, over 10 years ago, and to develop a unique expertise in creating value in the concrete business. With this acquisition, we are taking a pioneering step in the emerging Indian market.”